Stats That Don't Lie

We tend not to put much stock into strength of schedule based upon prior seasons. But it's a figure we all get bludgeoned with throughout the year, so it's pretty much impossible to ignore completely. Anyway, here goes:

Denver's 2015 strength of schedule as measured by opponents' winning percentages is .541, which is the 10th highest figure in the league.

Ask a Broncos fan these days, and it seems those are the only three options. There's no room for nuance. It doesn't matter whether he improved from 2013 to 2014, and apparently, it doesn't actually matter how well other receiving tight ends fare in blocking. Everyone's suddenly an expert on tight end blocking skills, and JULIUS THOMAS IS THE WORSTEST.

Yes, Connor Barth made five field goals against Kansas City on Sunday night, but as The Wolf says...

After all, those five field goals were from 22, 24, 30, 33, and 37 yards. Yes, Brandon McManus missed a 33-yarder last week, but none of his other misses came on short kicks.

If you want to assume that McManus would have missed enough of those attempts to cost Denver the game, you're certainly entitled. Of course, he would have had to have missed *all of them*, so there's that.

As Tebow's Hail Mary pass to Brandon Lloyd fell incomplete, thus ending Denver's wretched 2010 season, I was the one Broncos fan at SideBar in New York City (the birthplace of Tebowing) openly cheering the result.

Now, you're not supposed to root against your team, but Denver's draft standing was at stake - a win would have dropped the Broncos all the way from second to fifth in the 2011 Draft, and as much as we'd like to think that pick may have turned into Aldon Smith or J.J. Watt, we can be sure it would not have netted Von Miller.

Draft position aside, there was nothing to be gained out of finishing 5-11 rather than 4-12, and besides, I thought something much more important had occurred that day at the Big IF.